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NYT: Healthcare.gov Project Chaos Due Partly To Unorthodox Database Choice
First time accepted submitter conoviator writes "The NY Times has just published a piece providing more background on the healthcare.gov software project. One interesting aspect: 'Another sore point was the Medicare agency's decision to use database software, from a company called MarkLogic, that managed the data differently from systems by companies like IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. CGI officials argued that it would slow work because it was too unfamiliar. Government officials disagreed, and its configuration remains a serious problem.'" The story does not say that MarkLogic's software is bad in itself, only that the choice meant increased complexity on the project.
"Some people, when confronted with a problem, think 'I know, I'll use XML.' Now they have two problems."
-JWZ
MarkLogic is an XML database, not a relational database, so if your data primarily consists of XML content then it's the right tool for the job. Sounds like the vendor building the system had a favorite hammer and decided that a rather traditional database problem looked like a nail.
MarkLogic itself is fine if your data fits neatly into an XML schema, but with healthcare.gov that tree is probably enormous and hard to optimize for DB activity.
Software Shouldn't Suck
E-mail: frank at jacquette dot spamless com (remove the spamless!)
A customer at work has a MarkLogic database. I don't know what version it is, but I assure you IT IS HORRIBLE. It's like... an XML database or some shit. Just awful, and extremely confusing to use.
A couple years ago I was asked to do automatic database backups. The only documentation I could find for backing up the database requires logging into a web interface I had no idea existed on an obscure port and clicking a backup button. I literally had to write a perl script to fake a browser and do this just so they could get a database dump.
Do not use this product. Please.
I worked as a contractor developing a system at FDA. It lasted for 5 years. Inside the Beltway, it's pretty much the same all over. Dysfunctional communications and ridiculous breakdown of authority not corresponding to lines of management. No accountability. Project management requirements that have never been followed by any project. No commitment to the output of requirements gathering. No requirements change control. No performance engineering. Inadequate testing. No acceptance process by the government. IT groups with oversight for contractor output that have never written a line of code. All in all, pretty sick and ugly. Prior to my project there were 5 failed attempts. My project followed PMI practices, worked them hard and succeeded.